IT was indeed a special moment for Ingrid Christie when she was announced the winner of the grand prize in Appleton Jamaica Rum’s Win a Special Christmas promotion on January 7.

“It still hasn’t sunk in and it came at the ideal time,” she told Auto.

Christie took home a 2013 Audi A1, customised by Skunk Nation, along with a year’s comprehensive insurance and $120,000 in fuel vouchers. In the short ownership period, she’s labelled the Audi “sexy and powerful”.

“The A1 is far more than I expected. Now everyone wants to ride shotgun with me,” she added.

The contest, which ran from October 27, 2013 to January 4, 2014, used a heavy social media presence in an aim to connect with the current generation of Appleton customers. They were able to visit Appleton Jamaica’s Facebook page and enter codes printed on specially marked 750ml bottles of Appleton Special Rum to win instant prizes and be entered for a chance at the Audi A1.

“The Appleton Jamaica Rum ‘Win a Special Christmas’ promotion was a ground-breaking promotion for us in that it was the first promotion that was run exclusively on social media. The promotion resulted in a 30 per cent increase in fans on our Facebook page and our followers on Instagram doubled so we were extremely pleased with that,” said Gary Dixon, marketing director, J Wray & Nephew Limited.

According to Dixon, sales figures from the promotion were excellent as they were able to hand out over 6,000 individual prizes such as iPods, Samsung phones and televisions from ATL.